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DFG research unit 2358 | P7 Phylogeography of Ground Beetles as a human-independent paleoenvironmental proxy in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Yeshitla Merene Abebe, Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Prof. Lars Opgenoorth

One of the most challenging tasks in paleoecology is to disentangle climate signals from human disturbance signals. Ground beetles are one of a few bioindicator groups that are independent of human influence and still highly sensitive to environmental change. Using phylogeographic and phylogenetic analysis of extant primarily-wingless ground beetles in combination with subfossil beetle remains, provides a new proxy for paleoenvironments that is human-independent, spatially explicit and coherent. This method was established in the Himalayan-Tibetan Orogen and will be transferred to the African Highlands. This research is funded as WP7 in the DFG FOR 2358.